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Man survives hours lost at sea off New Zealand after turning jeans into flotation device

March 12, 2019– Mary Greeley News – A tourist from Germany survived being knocked overboard and left adrift for hours on the open water off the coast of New Zealand last week — all thanks to his jeans.

Arne Murke was delivering a yacht with his brother from Auckland, New Zealand to Brazil when they ended up sailing through rough seas about 20 miles off Tolaga Bay on March 6.

The 40-foot yacht’s mainsheet suddenly came loose amid the rough swells and knocked Murke overboard while he was only wearing a t-shirt and jeans.

“My brother started directly to get me but the swell was like three meters,” he told the New Zealand Herald. “He threw a life jacket with a rope overboard. I couldn’t reach that, it was already too far away.”

After being unable to reach the life jacket, the 30-year-old said he quickly decided to turn his jeans into a flotation device, a technique that’s used by lifesavers including U.S. Navy SEALs, Scouting groups and more.

Murke said he saw the technique used years ago, and that he always thought of using it if he ever ended up going overboard without any flotation device.

A German tourist owes his life to a pair of jeans he used as a makeshift lifejacket while lost at sea for over three hours off the Gisborne coast https://t.co/shjtXVUsda

“I took a deep breath, took out my jeans, made knots at the end of the legs and inflated the jeans; pull it over water and get air inside and then push it under water — I had like an improvised life vest,” he told the news outlet.